Junious "Buck" Buchanan

Sport: Football

Induction Year: 1986

University: Grambling

Induction Year: 1986

In 1959, Grambling State University football coach Eddie Robinson received a telephone call from a man in Birmingham, Ala.

“There’s a football player here you need,” he said.

“Who?” asked Robinson.

“Junious Buchanan,” he replied. “He’s my nephew.”

College football coaches usually are skeptical about recruiting tips provided by relatives, but Robinson had a hunch about this one. The next day, he called the principal of Parker High School in Birmingham and offered Buchanan a scholarship without bothering to check out game films.

“Buck” Buchanan was 6-6 and 225 pounds as a freshman at Grambling. When he left he was 6-7 and 274—and was the first player selected in the 1963 American Football League draft. He was picked ahead of Oregon State’s Terry Baker, Jerry Stovall of LSU, Bobby Bell of Minnesota and Lee Roy Jordan of Alabama, who claimed the top four positions in Heisman Trophy voting.

Buchanan arrived at Grambling with a talented group of freshmen that included willie Brown, Fred Collins, Lane Howel, Bob Burton and Willie “Special Touchdown” Houston.

“To be honest,” Robinson admitted later, “I didn’t think Buck would be much of a player because of his stance. He lined up with his foot in a bucket. But when we started running plays, he would tackle us whether we went to the right or the left, or went straight at him. It didn’t matter. It didn’t look like he could have lateral movement, but he was really touch.”

Grambling had winning seasons in all of Buchanan’s last three years, starting a streak of 27 consecutive winning seasons. But the 1962 Tigers who had 14 players who would play professional football and two (Buchanan and Willie Brown) who entered the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, won only their last five games and allowed 42 and 45 points in two of the losses.

The disappointing finish didn’t shake Robinson’s confidence in Buchanan’s ability.

“Buck had a tremendous attitude,” he recalled. “He was so disciplined and intent on being the very best athlete he could be.”

The feeling was mutual. “Coach Robinson is a man of inspiration,” Buchanan said, “and the guiding force in the lives of so many people. I know so many players come to realize this after they’ve left Grambling. He’s had a major influence on my life. I never would’ve had the success I’ve had without his guidance and support. Grambling has built a tradition of tremendous success, and the main reason for it is Coach Robinson. I’m proud to have been a part of his program.”

He was also proud of his decision to sign with the AFL at a time when it was engaged in a desperate struggle with the established National Football League.

“I signed with them because I considered it an honor to be the first player chosen by the league,” Buchanan said. “I thought it was very significant to have that honor, since I had played for a small black school. I was determined to prove that players from small schools could play in the big leagues.”

Eddie Robinson wasn’t the only person who jumped on “Buck” Buchanan’s bandwagon. Pro scouts spared no superlatives. “You have to see him to believe his speed,” one scout said. “Tremendous attitude, knocks down everything in his path.”

“Buck Buchanan,” wrote Grambling publicist Collie J. Nicholson in 1962, “is a 285-pound meat grinder who is as conspicuous as an elephant climbing up the side of an anthill.”

In his 13-year NFL career, Buchanan played in six AFL All-Star games, two Pro Bowls and two Super Bowls, helping the Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV at New Orleans. He was named to three All-AFL teams, and led the Chiefs in quarterback sacks five times. H was their team captain, and was voted the team’s Most Valuable Player in 1965 and 1967.

Buchanan missed one game in his NFL career, sitting out the 1974 opener because of a broken hand. Despite the injury, he played in the Chief’s other 12 games that year.

He was a successful businessman in Kansas City after his playing career, and his participation in the Miller Lite television commercials kept his fame intact .long after Buchanan’s final game.

Buchanan played at Grambling before the “100 Yards To Glory” television special propelled the school into the special spotlight. But the success of Paul “Tank” Younger, Willie Davis, Buchanan, Brown and many others in the NFL provided the credibility that established the small North Louisiana school as the “black Notre Dame.”